We have a fairly big update for you here. There will be some things here that are probably expected, and some things here that are pretty unexpected. Let's talk about some of those things.

First, we want to go into this clearly with the understanding that summoning and essence works how we have delivered it, and while we appreciate the tons of feedback we have received on it, we are committed to iterating on the existing system, and we are not looking to replace the core concepts of summoning or essence, nor to add additional complexity.

The major system change in this update is that a summoned Horror must now forfeit it's combat action. However, summoning will be going back to anytime during your Master's activation. This will turn summoning into more of a planned function, instead of it being "drop a heavy, slam that heavy into your enemy." While we expect (and encourage) summoning to still be of primary interest to your Master, it does open up some room for how your turn-to-turn decisions play out. The specific language is at the bottom of the notes.

Now, moving forward, we plan to update frequently and aggressively. It is entirely possible we launch another update tomorrow (Friday), though it could be smaller and only address a couple models. At the very least, it is our plan and hope to drop an update pretty much every two days. We all know how plans go the moment we mention them to the community, but we hope to also launch an update sometime Monday, then Wednesday, etc. Our goal is to iterate on trouble models as much as possible to settle things into the right spot. So, if you read these notes and think something wasn't changed enough, just be aware that we plan on constantly tweaking models if necessary. This does not mean the entire faction will be overhauled every other day, but if something pokes out as too egregious, we would like to be able to address it in a timely fashion.

Dark Mysteries gives you a free spell cast (once per turn) when one of your Marked Souls is killed. This gives Agathon some reactive spellcasting. Additionally, it's spell list has been pretty overhauled. I'll let the spell list speak for itself, because they are fairly extensive changes. The general idea is it gives Agathon a bit more control and hitting power.

Omodamos
Change Incorporeal on Feat to Ghostly
Change Locked Horns from affecting all models to only battlegroup models

Omodamos is seeing some power reduction. We didn't want to touch him too hard, because we think the summoning change impacts him quite a bit, so we are making the changes we feel are critical without going too deep down the rabbit hole.

Zaateroth is pretty solid, but we wanted to give her a bit of a nudge up. Shadow Gate just wasn't doing what we wanted, so we cut it and Grave Wind in favor of Admonition and Distraction. Distraction in particular has some strong control aspects, especially when doubled up with her feat, which saw a slight bump. Also, we moved Long Shadows off Valin and put it onto Zaateroth. This is a change we're keep a close eye on, because while we like that the faction has some weakness into dedicated gunlines, we don't want to tip that scale TOO far.

Tormentor
Change MAT 7 to MAT 6

Frankly, the Tormentor is too accurate. Dropping it's MAT from 7 to 6 means that you may need to boost to hit certain targets, which changes how you utilize Essence on it, which are the kind of small changes that can have ripple effects on the Essence economy. We're keeping a close eye on this.

Desolator
Change RAT 6 to RAT 5

This change was made for the exact same reasons as the Tormentor above.

Lamenter
Change Essence from 3 to 2
Change Point Cost 9 to 7
Change Soul Parasites to a passive ability

We have some significant changes we want to introduce to playtesting to see how they shake out. We changed the Lamenter to a cheaper (both points and Essence) Horror, and took the Essence cost requirement off Soul Parasites. We want this to be a light Horror that can act as a disruption piece (Soul Parasites, Dodge, Crit Paralysis) that can still threaten targets with a decently good P+S 13.

Shrieker
Change ARM 15 to 14
Change Eyeless Sight to True Sight

This thing didn't have no eyes! It had all the eyes! The actual change here is that it can now be Blinded, essentially. Also, it was ARM 15, which was just a tad too sturdy. We're still keeping an EYE on this one (get it?).

Cultist Band
Change Point Cost from 6/8 to 6/9
Remove Shanghai

Additional changes to Cultists. Shanghai removes a lot of complexity, which we're in favor of. Again, Cultists are a core function of the army we are keeping a close eye on, and we are interested in seeing how the new summoning changes, Dark Sentinel changes, and Faustus changes impact them before touching them more.

Howlers
Change Point Cost from 9/15 to 10/16

Slight point increase.

Lord Roget d'Vyaros
Remove Arcane Assist
Add Spiritual Conduit

Roget is kind of one of the culprits of our Essence economy issue. He was adding two free Essence to our Masters, and this is a deliberate and targeted change to mitigate that. We like Spiritual Conduit, but we're also not sold on it entirely. We'll be keeping on eye on how he shakes out via battle reports to make sure he lands right where we want him. He should definitely be a useful toolbox of abilities for your Master, but not a one-stop-shop of all-encompassing Essence efficiency.

These are some broad changes to Faustus. Our goal here is to add a little bit of protection to him (and perhaps Dark Sentinels) by controlling who get's killed. The addition of Soul Transfer also makes him a compelling mid-field option for those daring Cultists who like to get their hands dirty, or attract a lot of ranged attacks. This is a bit of a new direction for him, so let us know how he plays on the table!

Great Princess Regna Gravnoy
Change Master Infernalist to "This model is not an infernal master but has all the special rules of an infernal master except that it has no feat. This model can have only non-character Faction light and lesser horrors in its battlegroup. This model can have up to one horror in its battlegroup and any time and cannot summon a horror if there is already a horror in her battlegroup in play."

This change makes Regna still a super valuable solo who brings in Horrors, but limits her to a single Horror at a time. This will have pretty significant implications for Regna, and her Mobile Oppression Palace of Shriekers. I also think this means there will be situations where she wants to summon a Lamenter to throw out as a missile to absorb attacks and die, then repeat (obviously the turn after she summons it). It might also mean she can cast some of her spells! This is obviously a big change, let us know how it feels!

Valin Hauke
Add Tactician [Infernal]
Remove Long Shadows

Spoiler alert, Tactician has been removed from Mordecai and given to Valin, and as mentioned in the Zaateroth blurb above, we moved Long Shadows to her. Note: we realize this may have ramifications for the shooting susceptibility of the army (a flaw we are currently ok with). However, if this tilts to pendulum TOO far towards Guns-Just-Delete-This-Army, we will be looking at solutions.

Some pretty significant changes to Dark Sentinels. We want to play them up as the damage dealers of the unit. Battle Wizard and Hexbolt give them some more damage to throw out there, and hey, you could even live the dream and try to Battle Wizard a Rituals of Shadow!

Umbral Guardian
Change non-Soulless to non-Umbral

This one swung a little too far, so we're moving it back a bit. This is probably a very happy place for them. They can Shadow Guardian basically everything except each other. YOT EM!

Infernal Gate
Reduce the maximum number of Souls it can have from 5 to 3

We're keeping a close eye on the Gate. There are some things we want to fiddle with, but before we do that, we want to see how the summoning change shakes out. If we feel like that has landed in a good place, we'll begin tinkering with this bad boy.

This is the first step to get his abilities working correctly in the first place. Again, he is very high on our priority list. The swapping of Tactician is a good initial change, but hardly the final step. Keep play testing him, but believe me, we're going to keep sluggin' away at this guy until he is just right.

We want Kezia to be a sniper who picks off lone enemy models and delivers their souls. Shadow Fire was counter to this, so was limiting how far she could deliver the soul. Also, we dropped her points. Hopefully this'll help get her where we want her to go.

SummoningSummoning allows an infernal master to expend essence points to summon a horror from beyond time and space to add to its battlegroup.

An infernal master can summon a horror during its activation by spending a number of essence points equal to the base ESSENCE stat of the horror summoned. An infernal master can summon up to one horror each turn.

Place the horror base-to-base with the summoning infernal master. The horror enters play with one essence point. The horror is part of the infernal master’s battlegroup. A horror must forfeit its Combat Action the turn it is summoned.

Today, 10:59 AM
There was a thread overnight that sparked some really good conversation that led the dev team to discuss a possible alternative to the summoning rules proposed yesterday.

The basic idea is that when a horror is summoned, it comes into play with its outer and middle rings crippled but it can take its Combat Action normally.

The horrors damage rings can then be healed by Cultists, who can both restore function to the horror and fill it with essence. Additionally, we would change the rules for crippled aspects under this system:

While the outer ring is crippled, the horror rolls one fewer die on attack rolls.

While the middle ring is crippled, the horror rolls one fewer die on damage rolls.

Horrors will also have to pay essence to run, charge, and make power attacks.

Additionally, summoning returns to the Control Phase.

Our suspicion is that this system is weaker than the current "must forfeit Combat Action" version of the summoning rules, and that is by intent. But these rules also preserve some of the drama and fun factor that is lost when summoned horrors cannot act the turn they are summoned. This is the trade off that we are willing to try.

Please note that we also realize that these proposed changes will make Agathon’s Well of Sorrow feat incredibly powerful. Our suspicion is too powerful, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

If you want to post to this thread, please read all the way through this post before commenting.

We are looking for player’s to play test some games using the damage ring system and hopefully also the current "must forfeit Combat Action" version of the summoning rules and let us know which you prefer. We are not looking for alternative suggestions at this time, especially suggestions that add any further complexity. The whole point of why we are entertaining this possible direction is that it works within the framework of the existing rules.

If you post a battle report using these rules, please mark it as such at the start of your report so everyone reading it will know what it is.

If you don't have an opinion on which you prefer or want to litigate previous iterations of the summoning rules, this is not the thread for you. We are going to be focused here.

I also wanted to reiterate that in the case we retain the current "must forfeit Combat Action" version of the summoning rules, the damage rules would not change to the more severe system described above.

We are going to let this dev talk run through the weekend and lock it down Monday morning. The dev team will wander in and answer questions from time to time as we are available.

Assuming we do not change the current "must forfeit Combat Action" version of the summoning rules, we will begin digging deeper into its implications next week as we start discussing the possibility of adding an Ancillary Attack special action, or a similar special rule, to the Faction. We may also discuss the idea of giving more horrors passive effects so they can have some additional effect on the game the turn summoned. But that will be next week.